Walmart Inc. was hit with two lawsuits -- within a few days of each other -- claiming it discriminated against workers because of their disabilities.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the suits on behalf of the plaintiffs. The most recent, filed Thursday, claims that Walmart violated parts of the Americans with Disabilities Act when it reprimanded and eventually fired Calvin Hagan for excessive absences.
According to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Hagan started working for Walmart in a Raleigh, N.C., store in 2012 and moved up the management ladder until April 2017, when he was diagnosed with general convulsive epilepsy. His seizures often required medical treatment or time off for recuperation, according to the documents.
Despite bringing doctors' notes and letting the human resources department know of his condition, he was demoted in April 2018, the documents say. Hagan was fired in August 2018 after nine disability-related absences between February and July that year.
Walmart "failed to grant Mr. Hagan's requests for reasonable accommodation including his requests for a) intermittent leave or b) excused disability-related absences," according to the complaint.
The EEOC said in the complaint that Hagan suffered damages including back pay, front pay, losses in compensation and benefits, humiliation, emotional distress, and "loss of enjoyment of life."
The commission is asking the judge to grant a permanent injunction barring Walmart and its workers from discriminating against people with disabilities and ordering them to create equal employment opportunities for qualified people with disabilities; compensation for financial and other losses; and punitive damages.
The first EEOC suit, filed March 27 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, alleges the Bentonville-based retailer failed to provide reasonable accommodation for employee Adrian Tucker, who has Crohn's disease.
Tucker started working at a Walmart store in Statesville, N.C., in February 2014, court records show. She started having symptoms related to Crohn's disease in September 2016.
In early 2017, after many hospitalizations related to the disease, Tucker asked for accommodation of her disability with a leave of absence; for part-time work; and to be transferred to a position closer to the bathroom, according to court documents filed.
Her requests were denied, according to the documents.
The EEOC is asking the judge for the same terms in Tucker's case as in Hagan's.
Walmart did not immediately provide a statement Monday.
Hagan's case number is 5:23-00160. The Tucker case number is 5:23-00044.